Friday is the Day

We have set our sights on Friday morning as a key point in the markets. The big news on the Street today was that the bulls were lightening up ahead of Friday's jobs report, so we are not the only ones paying attention to it. This report is significant in so many ways such as giving us a better clue again how the underlying economy is fairing in general, how that will affect the bond market and in turn the mortgage market, the reaction the stock market takes to the news as well as bonds and the dollar and of course the metals, and will the Red Sox be able to win the World Series again? Oh, I just threw that one in there to see if you were keeping up.

This morning, the Bank of England Lowered its interest rates from 4.75% to 4.50% in a widely expected move (not to me). There seems to be some confusion in the world about the direction of the global economy. Britain is hopeful for better times ahead but wants to lower rates just to be safe. The ECB (European Central Bank) did not follow suit today but that could be just around the corner.

Tonight's post is mainly marking time waiting for the reaction tomorrow morning. As you know, the news doesn't seem to be very important, just the way the market moves on the news. And, don't forget the first move may be reversed, especially if it is an up move.

We saw how the market traded today in anticipation of the jobs report but don't really put much stock in that. The number is still unknown (to most of the world) so we have to wait like everybody else. We do expect the resolution to be to the downside but the bulls have managed to keep it up here for a while. Friday morning will provide you a very good clue about the next big move--which we think will be down.

In June the bond market topped at the very moment the June jobs came out and has not been able to get back to that level since. This week we may see the same thing in the stock market.

If there is something to report, I'll try to add my two cents after the report comes out in the morning. No Promises, but good luck after the number comes out. We are looking for some bear relief.

Dow Industrials: 10610.10 -87.49 (getting very close to that 10,500 again)
BGEIX: 11.61

PS There is some concern in the market place that Saturday's 60th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing could be a target date for more terrorist activities. This could also weigh on the market later on Friday. I don't know where this stuff comes from I just report it.